Christ’s Speaking to the Local Churches in Revelation

Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee

In the Old Testament, we see three stages of the eating of Christ: the tree of life in the garden, the manna in the wilderness, and the rich produce of the good land. We have been in these stages. We were created in the garden. Then, due to the fall, we found ourselves in Egypt. After we were saved, we made our exodus out of the world and were on our way to meet the Lord. As we were journeying to meet the Lord, we were in the wilderness where there was manna. Recall that the promise of the hidden manna is given to the overcomers in the worldly church, indicating that Pergamos had returned to Egypt. Manna was not available in Egypt; it was only in the wilderness, and the hidden manna was only found within the Holy of Holies. The church in Pergamos became a worldly church, a church in Egypt where there was no manna. If we would eat manna, whether open or hidden manna, we must come out of Egypt. We must escape from that place where Satan dwells and where his throne is and go out into the wilderness where we may firstly eat the open manna and then come forward into the Holy of Holies and dive into the ark to eat the hidden manna. It seems that eventually the seven epistles bring us into the good land, which is Christ. Here, in the good land, we feast on Christ. During the yearly feasts, the children of Israel feasted with God and God feasted with them. This may be a type of the promise to the overcomer in Laodicea. The Lord’s promise to dine with whomever opened to Him may imply the thought of enjoying the rich produce of the good land of Canaan during the annual feasts. Hence, the epistle to the church in Ephesus refers to the eating of the tree of life, the epistle to the church in Pergamos points to the eating of the hidden manna outside of the world, and the epistle to the church in Laodicea alludes to the enjoyment of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan at the time of the yearly feasts. Whenever the Israelites had a feast, they ate with God, offering what they were eating to God and letting God eat with them. In like manner, the Lord says that He will dine with us and that we shall dine with Him. If we have this overview, then we shall know what we must emphasize today. We are not for teachings—we are for the full enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life, as the manna, and as the rich produce of the good land.

In verse 21 the Lord said, “He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” To sit with the Lord on His throne will be a prize to the overcomer that he may participate in the Lord’s authority in the coming millennial kingdom. This means that the overcomers will be co-kings with Christ ruling over the whole earth. Once again I say that, strictly speaking, all the promises in these seven epistles concern the coming kingdom. Any negative word regarding loss or suffering refers to a loss during the coming kingdom, and any positive word regarding gain or enjoyment refers to the enjoyment of Christ as our special portion during the age of the kingdom. We must have the insight to understand these promises in a proper way. Nevertheless, in principle, these promises may also be applied today and we may pretaste them now. There is no need to wait until we enter into the kingdom age to enjoy all these special portions. Today in the church life we are privileged to enjoy the kingdom. Praise the Lord for the church life!

(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation, 198-201)

In verse 19 the Lord said, “As many as I love I rebuke and discipline.” If she is willing to take it, the Lord’s rebuke in love will be an eyeopener to the degraded church. But her pride may frustrate her from receiving it. When we become lukewarm and feel rebuked by the Lord, we need to look to Him for His mercy that we may be willing to be humble to receive His rebuke in love. This may bring the proper remedy to the degraded church.

Discipline is a further step taken by the Lord to deal with His degraded church after He has rebuked her. If she is willing to receive the Lord’s rebuke, He may not need to exercise His discipline over her. The Lord’s discipline is exercised over her in love.

In verse 19 the Lord charged the church in Laodicea, saying, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Dead knowledge has made the degraded church lukewarm. She needs to become crazily burning by dropping the deadening and cooling knowledge, and she even needs to break the bondage of her doctrinal forms. She needs to be boiling rather than to be dead right according to dead doctrine. She needs to love the Lord and pay any price to gain Him, even at the cost of sacrificing the “doctrines.” A lukewarm church needs to be hot, to be burning at any cost. She needs to repent of her lukewarmness, not to be proud of her knowledge any longer. She has been appreciating her dead knowledge too much. She needs to depreciate all her knowledge and repent of being satisfied with the vanity of knowledge and not with the reality of Christ.

(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation, 207)

Main

Ephesus

Smyrna

Pergamos

Thyatira

Sardis

Philadelphia

Laodicea

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